In my weekly blog, Heather’s Musings, I write about what has been happening in my life and how I am applying my mindfulness, compassion and insight practice to it. The process of writing the blog is often an opportunity for me to gain more clarity and recognise what is happening and I find it highly beneficial. My wish is that it is also helps other meditation practitioners who are on a similar journey.
The opinions and beliefs that I express in this blog are my own and do not represent the opinion of the Mindfulness Association.
I am at Samye Ling in the middle of delivering the retreat for people training to teach the brand new Mindfulness Based Living Course for Young Adults (MBLC-YA). I am delivering it with the creator of the course, Heather Grace Bond (nee MacKenzie), a graduate of our MSc in Mindfulness (click here) who we are…
I usually have a question dropped in to the back of my mind on the look out for a theme for my blog. Generally, something emerges and the blog writes itself. This week is different, as the themes that are emerging are all ones I have written about many times before, such as: Firstly, an…
Today I am sitting in the sunny garden of my new house in Scotland, awaiting the arrival of Choden and Norton Bertram-Smith for a Board meeting of the MA. We are the three Directors of the MA, which is a Scottish not for profit Limited Company. Today we will be mainly reviewing accounts and discussing…
One of the best teachings I received from Rob Nairn was on self-acceptance. He would say ‘If we accepted ourselves wholly and unconditionally would it matter what others think of us?’ He would also say that ‘We might as well accept this version of ourself as we don’t have a spare in the cupboard!’ That…
This last weekend I was in Venice to teach the last weekend of the Level 3 – Seeing Deeply (insight) training. I have worked a lot with this group – most did their Level 2 – Responding with Compassion training with me, some did their Level 1 – Mindfulness: Being Present training with me and…
As many of you know, when I start my morning practice I pick one of Pema Chodron’s Compassion cards. The one I picked this morning – one that I pick out ‘randomly’ on a regular basis and that is a daily reminder alarm on my phone each morning – is ‘Abandon all hope of fruition’.…
I love British weather – it is cool – literally it stays within the extremes of very hot and very cold, being generally cool and livable. It is also lovely and damp, with plenty of rain giving rise to lush and sparkly green vegetation. I am reminded of this as I struggle through 39 degrees…
Thank you to all of you who attended the MA’s conference at Samye Ling this last weekend. My experience of it was overwhelmingly wonderful, with many old friends and new sharing practice and experience and supporting the vision of the MA to spread the benefits of Mindfulness and Compassion around the world. We started with…
I am not feeling my usual self at the moment. I am more reactive, impulsive and my resistance to choosing to practice or to follow the options to promote well-being is through the ceiling. I am moving house, but surely that couldn’t be the problem? So, I googled this morning what the most stressful life…